Carlisle

A study of James Hay, a little known 17th-century Scotsman who was a key figure in the early Stuart era. Unlike the vast majority of Scots who entered England with James I, Hay absorbed the culture of England & tried to become a genuine part of it, in order to play an important role for his adopted country on both the nat. & internat. level. For more than 3 decades Hay was at the right hand of those who made the decisions, & advised them on what to decide. Between 1616 & 1629 Hay conducted trips to virtually every major Western European nation. Hay¿s lesser gentry origins, emphasis on civilian gov¿t. employment (as opposed to the military), devotion to the court over the country & ardent entrepreneurship all single him out as a Jacobean aristocrat.